Metallica Speaks Out About Negativity Surround Their Glastonbury Appearance

Vancouver, BC, Canada / The World Famous CFOX!

June 09, 2014 03:44 pm

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has spoken out about the negative feedback to the band’s upcoming headlining appearance at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival, which will be the first time in the event’s 44-year history that a metal act has topped the bill. Asked about the response, Ulrich told Metal Hammer, “Glastonbury is like the Holy Grail in England, and we’re respectful to that. But if somebody sits there and talks about petitions or what some other guy says, there’s a point that it just becomes ridiculous.”

Ulrich continued, “We’re fairly thick-skinned. Obviously if Mick Jagger has something to say, or Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys), or the nice guys inKasabian, it’s cool. But if some guy in some other band — it’s like, ‘Huh? What? Who are you?'”

Ulrich may have been referring to comments made by drummer Martin Bulloch of Scottish indie band Mogwai, who called Metallica “s***e,” while multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns added, “I can’t wait to hear (Ulrich) play the drums again — unbelievably bad.”

Ulrich’s mention of a petition may have been an indirect reference to a petition launched last month calling for Metallica’s removal from the festival, due to frontman James Hetfield hosting a new series about bear hunting on the History channel.

Speaking about the Glastonbury criticism with the BBC, Ulrich said, “The fact that everyone’s got an opinion I’ll take as a good thing because it means that people still care and are still interested and we still have one foot in relevance of some sort. It’s comforting that 33 years into a career you can still manage to stir up a little bit.”

Metallica will close the show at Glastonbury on Saturday, June 28th. Other headliners include Arcade Fire and Kasabian.